LOWER POTTSGROVE — Mark Dukes, Tory Hudgins and their Pottsgrove teammates may have come up a little short in last week’s District 1-Class AAA semifinal, but they sure didn’t fail to leave some more marks in The Mercury area’s leader and record books.

Dukes and Hudgins finished up last weekend first and second in the area, respectively, in both scoring and yards rushing, a reflection of just how good the offensive line in front of them was this fall. Together, it led the way for another record-breaking year of football for the Pioneer Athletic Conference champion Falcons.

Dukes (1,347 yards) and Hudgins (1,267) are pretty much a lock to finish one-two in rushing. The only other player with a chance to run past them is Phoenixville’s Ryan Yenchick, who has 1,019 yards going into tonight’s game at Spring-Ford. Dukes (142 points) and Hudgins (141) could be overtaken in the scoring column, though, because Pottstown senior Monroe Hampton is right behind them with 138 points going into Thursday morning’s game at Owen J. Roberts.

Last week’s loss denied Hudgins of becoming just the third area quarterback to run for more than 3,000 career yards, too. Hudgins finished with 2,928 (7.2 yards a carry) and 53 touchdowns, and 4,385 total yards of offense.

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Dukes closed with 2,489 career rushing yards, quite an achievement considering he had just 10 carries as a sophomore and missed 5½ games as a junior last season.

Overall, the Falcons broke the league record for points scored (399) — eclipsing the previous mark of 367 set by Lansdale Catholic in 2007 — and went over the overall 400-point mark for a record sixth consecutive season. The Falcons came up just shy of The Mercury’s all-time single-season scoring record of 497, which they set in 2009 and equaled the following year. The only other team to score 400 or more points in successive seasons is Spring-Ford, which is currently on a two-year run.

And one more relatively unknown but interesting statistic was Pottsgrove’s single-season scoring differential of 28.9 points — the fourth-best, and just behind No. 3 Owen J. Roberts’ 29-point spread in 1984, in area football history.

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Of the seven District 1 playoff games last Friday night — four in AAAA, two in AA and one involving an A team — five were decided by three points or less, another by seven points and, of course, there was the Coatesville blowout (42-21) of Wissahickon.

In other playoffs around the state, eight games were decided by a point or less; one by two points; two by three points; and one by four points; and four by five or six points. Four games were decided in overtime.

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Schuylkill Valley’s Jeff Chillot — the last remaining area graduate to still be coaching in the postseason last week — saw his Panthers’ season end following a 42-14 loss at undefeated Wyomissing in the District 3-AA semifinals. Chillot, a graduate of St. Pius X High School, dropped a narrow 37-33 meeting with No. 2 ranked Wyomissing on Oct. 27.

AROUND THE STATE

Big, big game: Perhaps the Game of the Week in the entire state unfolds Friday night when Bishop McDevitt (12-0) hosts Lancaster Catholic (9-3) in the District 3-Class AAA semifinals. Bishop McDevitt, which finished second in the state the last two years, opened the season with three very impressive wins over Harrisburg (21-20), defending AAAA state champion Central Dauphin (24-7), and Cumberland Valley (48-28) — and all three of those rivals qualified for their district playoffs. Lancaster Catholic, which won the Class AA state title a year ago before moving up a bracket this season, was 4-3 at one point this fall. But the Crusaders have won five straight since.

Defending champions: All four of Pennsylvania’s four defending state champions are still alive in their bid to get back to the final. … Class AAAA defending champion Central Dauphin (10-2) hosts a very good Harrisburg (10-2) in the District 3 semifinals. The Rams defeated Harrisburg, 24-21, back on Oct. 13. … In Class AAA, defending champion Archbishop Wood (10-2) — which embarrassed Bok in last weekend’s District 12 final — has the week off before taking on either Henderson (9-3) or Interboro (10-2). … The Class AA bracket is open (with Lancaster Catholic moving up to AAA this season). ... And in Class A, three-time defending champion Clairton (12-0) — which last week tied Central Bucks West’s state record of 59 straight wins, will attempt to break that mark when it hosts Sto-Rox (11-1) for the District 7 championship.

Misleading marks: Eric McDowell (6-5) and Allentown Central Catholic (7-5) have less than impressive won-loss marks, but both are still alive in the postseason. McDowell, which piled up a 61-14 rout of Perry (8-3) last week, hosts State College (9-3) in the Class AAAA-District 8/9/10 Sub-Regional final. Allentown C.C., which blanked Southern Lehigh last week, travels to Abington Heights (10-2) in the Class AAA-District 2/11 Sub-Regional final.

Shorter list: Eight unbeaten teams lost for the first time last week and saw their seasons end. In addition to Pottsgrove’s setback to Henderson in the District 1-AAA semifinals, Ridley lost to Spring-Ford; Scranton lost to Delaware Valley up in District 2-AAAA; Catasauqua and Old Forge both dropped their District 2-AA and District 2-A semifinals, respectively, to Pen Argyl and Dunmore; Thomas Jefferson fell to West Allegheny in the District 7-AAA semifinals; South Fayette lost to undefeated Washington in the District 7-AA semifinals; and Clearfield dropped its game with University Prep in the District 8/9-Class AAA final. … This weekend, there are three games matching unbeaten teams against one another — Bermudian Springs at Wyomissing in the District 3-AA final; Washington at Aliquippa in the District 7-AA final; and Clarion at Port Allegany in the District 9-A final. … Aliquippa, ranked No. 1 in Class AA, put a 56-0 hurting on longtime state power Jeannette (10-2) last Friday. The Quips have permitted just six touchdowns this season, own six shutouts, and have outscored their 12 opponents by a combined total of 624-42 points (or an average of 48.5 points a game).